Explorations in Strategy - Italy at War

Judas Maccabeus: Yep. Paradox games wouldn't be Paradox games without the AI have infinite naval range.

delra: Nope, I like my fleet. Gives me good power projection capabilities for maritime strategy, far better than anything a battleship could give me.

GrenadierSchube: Hehe, I've not really used naval bombers much yet. My carriers are doing most of the air work.

sneakey pete: True enough, more or less.

I'll have the first update of 1941 tomorrow evening! Of course, remember that this is evening on the American eastern seaboard now, not in Britain.

womble: Well, a lot of assets are certainly trapped in Tel Aviv!

Juan_de_Marco: Hehe. I think it's a bit premature talking about a Barbarossa!

quetzilla: True, it's not as bad as HoI2 by a long shot.

Update for tonight, lads!

delra: AreoHotah's got it right. I started with 1.1, of course, that being the release day patch. By the end of 1937 IIRC 1.2 was released so I patched. By the end of 1940 1.3 was released, so what I'm writing about now will be 1.3 material. Well, more like complete mongrel material, but nevertheless.

FlyingDutchie: That would take out half the charm of the game! Don't you love seeing Latvian ships patrolling along your shores as Japan?

AreoHotah: Nope, you're right.

BlitzMartinDK: As a neutral, Vichy wouldn't allow that though, right? Might've based from me, but wouldn't territory go to me then? I have no idea.

Update coming up!

The Year of Strategic Crisis
Part 1: Cleaning Up the Mediterranean, January 1 – January 14, 1941

The New Year began brightly and full of promise. On every front, Italy was advancing. However, this honeymoon period, which had begun the year before, was quickly coming to an end. It was during this year that Italy finally recognized that it was waging war upon the great global power of its time, even if its time was coming to an end. More than ever before, even at the worst of the crisis of the Romanian War, during this year Mussolini had to face the idea that perhaps, just perhaps, Italy did not yet have a sufficiently large military to safeguard its interests and its frontiers, expanded as both were by the previous years of conquest.

Dall’Ora’s corps, in southern Egypt, continued its southward march and began entering Sudan. Dall’Ora’s task was a simple one, albeit also a difficult one. He was to find and attain a defensible southern border on which he could defend Italy’s new possessions. One hard and easily appreciable component of this mission was the conquest of Port Sudan. The fall of this port would complicate British logistics in East Africa to a great extent, and would also simplify Dall’Ora’s own logistics, which were traced back all the way to Alexandria if not Tobruk, Benghazi and Tripoli. Another objective, though it would only be recognized much later during the year, was the British airfield at Khartoum.


Dall’Ora’s corps, pushing into Sudan with three divisions on a wide front.

In Palestine, meanwhile, Cei’s mobile corps had overrun the entirety of the remaining British possessions, up to the Iraqi border. Geloso’s infantry were stationed around Tel Aviv. That city was under siege, and awaiting the Italian hammer blow. All of Italy’s fleets were gathering off the coast of Palestine for the showdown with the British Mediterranean Fleet. The gunned ships were prowling just over the horizon, ready to close and shoot up any British ships that attempted to break out. To the southwest, Campioni’s fleet was undergoing final preparations for launching its carrier-based air groups. One fleet carrier and two escort carriers were involved in this. To the north, Da Zara’s new fleet was also making similar preparations. His fleet was smaller than Campioni’s, but more powerful. He commanded fewer cruisers, but they were more modern. He commanded only two carriers, but they were modern fleet carriers; next to them, Campioni’s seemed nearly obsolescent, and he put up the same number of warplanes into the air.


Italian naval forces, preparing for the hammer blow against the Mediterranean Fleet.

One final step was required before the hammer blow. Cyprus had to be taken. It, alongside Malta and Tel Aviv, represented the final British port in the Mediterranean. The Royal Navy could try to escape to Lefkosia during the hammer blow, and begin the process all again. Furthermore, outside Lemesos was a British airfield, and there were hopes in the Italian high command that it was sufficiently close to Tel Aviv for Italian naval and medium bombers to also partake in the decisive strikes against the Mediterranean Fleet. To this effect, Gambara’s corps was earmarked for the task of landing at Lemesos and overcoming the two-division Free French garrison of the island.


The invasion of Cyprus by Gambara’s corps.

Gambara landed easily at Lemesos, there being no armed opposition to the landing. From there he quickly gathered his corps together and launched his attack on Lefkosia. The two French divisions there were triangular divisions, and thus Gambara’s entire corps only outnumbered them by three to two. It was a hard battle, lasting from the sixth when it began until the fourteenth, costing nearly six hundred Italian and nearly two thousand Free French casualties. Nevertheless, the island fell and the Free French forces were destroyed. During this battle, there also came news that Luxembourg had succumbed to German political pressure and effectively became a satellite state. Mussolini could not imagine why Hitler did not just conquer the tiny state, and saw no benefit to its status as a satellite.

However, to offset the good news of the successful battle for Cyprus came some worrisome news. The British, having been ejected from the continent and indeed from a good part of its Northeast African and Middle Eastern holdings, had returned to what Basil Liddel-Hart believed to be its traditional way of warfare. His argument, crafted in the middle of the interwar period as a reaction to the blood-letting of the First World War, was that Britain kept to the seas, and used diplomacy and money to find allies on the continent to stand up to the present contender for hegemony, whether it be Spain, France or Germany. In this trend, it had persuaded Spain to join the Allied cause.


Huh. That’s a bit silly.

Mussolini was, as could be expected, not particularly happy with this development, though he was also unimpressed by it. It may be, however, that he did not immediately recognize the import of this news. Within two days though, he had realized its importance. Spain had joined the war. Grossi’s army was suddenly under siege in Italy’s foothold in Iberia. Nasi’s army group there, consisting solely of Grossi’s army, was not sufficient to fend off the Spanish army. Considerably tracts of territory had already fallen, and the Spaniards were closing in. Locally, Spain was strong and Italy was weak. Mussolini was able to perceive why the Spanish would attack Italy; they had lost a considerable amount of territory that they no doubt wished back. But Mussolini’s strategy was suddenly in crisis; it had assumed a quiescent Spain. Now, before the rest of Mussolini’s plans could be undertaken, the Spanish question would have to be resolved once and for all.


Oh. Hmmmm.

Crisis had finally arrived. After a humiliating start, with its army in Egypt destroyed and its massive Mediterranean Fleet fleeing ahead of the Regio Esercito and Regia Marina, the British were hitting back where Italy was weak. It required a response, a strong response, to show the British that they could not prevail in such a way.